Had a brutal day where our CRM migrations ate 7 hours and then the client said 'can you just redo the whole thing'

We spent all Wednesday importing 14,000 contacts with custom fields mapped and at 4pm the client told us the structure was wrong for their workflow. Has anyone else dealt with a migration where the requirements changed AFTER the data was loaded?

3 comments

3 Comments

faith_shah881mo ago

I had a buddy who spent a whole weekend swapping out engine blocks on a customer's classic Mustang, only for the guy to show up Monday and say he actually wanted a different transmission. Just a totally different plan all of a sudden. Sometimes people don't really know what they want until they see the finished thing sitting there.

the_fiona1mo ago

Wow, a whole weekend swapping an engine and then the customer comes back wanting a different transmission instead? That's brutal.

pat7811mo ago

The part about "people don't really know what they want until they see the finished thing" really hits home for me. It's like they have this vague idea in their head but can't put it into words until they see the actual data sitting there in front of them. I've had clients approve a full migration plan, then watch them stare at the test import for 20 minutes and go "hmm, this doesn't feel right." The worst part is when they blame you for not reading their mind about the hidden requirements they never mentioned. How do you even plan for something like that when the goalposts move after you've already crossed the finish line?

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